The Buried Pillars

The Buried Pillars from indie studio T.F.A.N.C.S. is a hand-drawn 2D Metroidvania where the game's defining quirk is that every major enemy and boss is a "monster girl" character — fierce, alluring, and designed by an art team that clearly loves the niche. Underneath the aesthetic hook is a properly tight Metroidvania: fast-paced melee combat with parries and air dashes, a sprawling interconnected world map, and a steady drip of new abilities (double jump, wall cling, charged spells) that retroactively open earlier areas.

Pacing-wise, it's closer to Hollow Knight or Blasphemous than the slower exploration of older Castlevanias — combat is the moment-to-moment focus, and bosses hit hard enough that pattern memorization matters. Released March 2026; this build is 22444316.

Released with CSF + Goldberg, fully offline-playable. 83 MB installed (the entire game runs on hand-drawn sprite art at a tiny install footprint). Single-player only.